And at one point the curse stops attacking and just stands there, looking at Nanami with a curious expression on their face. "What Grade are you?"

"... One."

It's publicly (for sorcerers and curse users) available knowledge, so. It'd just be petty and unprofessional to not answer the question. He is suspicious of this line of questioning, though. It's unlikely to lead to anywhere good. Regardless, he doesn't take the obvious bait to try and slice at the curse. Instead he'll be wary of an attack of some kind.

"Oh, wow! That explains how you're so powerful. I'm really in luck, here. You'll be a wonderful experiment."

And the curse leaps, moving an order of magnitude faster than they've been this whole fight, too fast, and their hand touches Nanami's torso directly— "Idle Transfiguration."

This is the point where many other sorcerers would have lost. Fortunately for Nanami Kento, he has been very careful, and above all very deliberate about work life balance. The horrible things he experiences at work may not touch his private life, not if he can help it. And, being a fully functional adult with comparatively minimal hangups for his chosen profession, he can. This exact sort of mentality, the protection of the self as an ideal that he constantly reinforces, is what saves him from a truly torturous fate. It is not inaccurate to say that his 'soul,' as Mahito perceives it, is shielded by cursed energy. The transfiguration fails to go through; his soul refuses to be changed.

Nanami still feels the hit, though, and grunts in discomfort before he slices off the offending extremity touching him and jumps away. The curse now shows self transfiguration abilities; this eliminates one of the precious few weaknesses he was able to discern. Also, it makes this matchup even worse. Was it always able to do that and just waiting for a moment to strike, or even worse, is it noticing what its enemy is paying attention to and responding accordingly?

"Oh, you're more interesting than I thought." Stitch's legs seem to have been transfigured into those of a—goat? some ungulate, anyway—and they quickly reconstitute their arm. "You managed to protect your soul on instinct! But you can't sense it, can you? So it won't last. All I have to do is touch you two or three more times..."

"...and you'll be mine." And whether they just discovered this power or were holding back all along, they're not holding back anymore.

Unfortunate. Not enough for the stitched curse to get in anymore transfiguration attempts, but the grade 1 sorcerer is definitely on the ropes, now. This is more of a game of keep away than a proper fight. The prize to keep away is, of course, the sorcerer himself. Quite a dangerous game, but not one he's unaccustomed to. He doesn't even seem particularly flustered, or even afraid.

That's one pact to enhance his own cursed energy, but that's hardly going to be enough. But this time spent playing keep away has gone on rather longer than he would have liked, and so soon enough: it's past 6 PM.

...the sorcerer's cursed energy just suddenly vastly increased. "A time-based pact? You've been limiting yourself all along?" Maybe they should get worried! But this just sounds like a lot of fun. Time to press the offensive even more.

It is the essence of the intelligent 9 to 5 (or in this case, 10 to 6) worker to only expend the energy necessary to get the job done, and not waste time putting in more effort or power than is necessary. That's just pragmatism and planning for the long term to prevent burnout. After his allotted 8 hours of work, well.

"If we both live, let's do this again sometime," he says softly, just as he zips in to slice off one of the curse's legs. And then he really should see about not dying to that large scale cursed environmental collapse he set up, that's kind of the thing that might actually kill him.

And it being just as dangerous to the sorcerer himself means it's extra dangerous to him! Oh shit! He might actually die!

Yep. That's the idea.

But of course, he has no way to be sure, and he does not escape from the deadly collapse unscathed.

Which is why he needs to be picked up and taken to be healed. The irony of the only lasting injury from the fight being self inflicted has not escaped him, but such is the way of the working man.

"Ah, I'm just at Yoshino Junpei's house. I'll call you back."

"No."

"...no? What—what do you mean?"

"I'm not coming back with you right now."

"Itadori-kun—"

"I'll call Nanami-san and talk about it with him."

He does that.

"The spirit is special grade, and a very bad matchup for both of us. You might be endangering your new friend more than you could conceivably protect him with your presence. It was looking for sorcerers to be its test subjects."

"But if it survived and is that smart it'll come after him and his mum to bait us. I'm not gonna fight it; if it shows up I'm gonna run. With them."

"... In open space, with your abilities, you have decent odds for being able to outrun it alone, or while carrying one other person. However, I don't think you could manage it while carrying two. And of course, if you get cornered you're worse than dead. I therefore recommend against this course of action."

"I understand your concern, Nanami-san. I still think the odds are better this way. The curse has in fact baited both of us—you personally, tonight—and it'll do it again. In the worst case I'll," he swallows dryly, "cut my losses and run. But they have a better chance of surviving this way." And at least for now it's kind of got them on the defensive, leading them where it wants them to go. Tōkan wants to make his own choice, here.

"Very well. Then prioritize accordingly, and always have at least two potential exits in any enclosed spaces. Preferably more. Good luck."

And with that, Nanami will hang up, and quietly go and make his very best attempt to not pass out from blood loss before Ijichi gets here to pick him up. Eugh.

So he gets rid of Ijichi and then it's back to the movie!

"Sorry about that. My, uh." Pause. "Handler? I think that's the word for what he is, huh. Anyway, my handler got hurt fighting stitched curse and he was worried."

"He fought Mahito?? Um." It's a dumb question to ask if he's okay, isn't it, so he doesn't, even though his social script says he should. "O-okay. He didn't... try talking first??"